Exploring the effects of financial stress on undergraduate nursing students in Scotland
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Exploring the effects of financial stress on undergraduate nursing students in Scotland

Mark Molesworth Senior lecturer, Department of Nursing and Community Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland
Katie Davis Lecturer in health and social care (mental health), The Open University, Health, Wellbeing and Social Care, Edinburgh, Scotland
Deborah Rickards-Hill Lecturer in adult nursing, Department of Nursing and Community Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland
Irene Bossman Multimorbidity PhD Programme for Health Professionals fellow, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland
Wendy Mayne Senior lecturer (retired), School of Health and Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland

Why you should read this article:
  • To understand how increases in the cost of living have affected nursing students

  • To appreciate the effects of financial stress on students’ mental health

  • To consider the practical issues that may increase financial stress for students such as the cost of travelling to practice placements

The sharp increase in the cost of living in the UK over the past few years has affected all populations, including higher education students. Many higher education students, including nursing students, are experiencing financial difficulties and concerns, which adversely affect their mental health and can cause them to consider leaving their course. This article reports the findings of an online survey undertaken in one university in Glasgow, Scotland, that aimed to explore the effects of financial stress on second and third-year nursing students. Most respondents had experienced financial worries since starting their preregistration nursing degree programme; many were concerned about the cost of living, and financial worries adversely affected their academic performance and clinical placements. The authors suggest there is a need for a collaborative partnership between universities and practice placement areas to adopt a student-centred approach to identifying solutions to nursing students’ financial concerns as well as a review of the available funding for this cohort.

Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2025.e12405

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@Kat1eD

Correspondence

katie.davis@open.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Molesworth M, Davis K, Rickards-Hill D et al (2025) Exploring the effects of financial stress on undergraduate nursing students in Scotland. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2025.e12405

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank John H McKendrick and Elena Magli from the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University for their support with data analysis

Published online: 06 January 2025

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